ABSTRACT Research in basic molecular toxicology continues to underpin key innovations and advances in environmental, pharmaceutical, and industrial sciences by striving to elucidate the cellular, biochemical, and genomic mechanisms of action of toxic substances. The pace of national and international regulation of environmental and pharmaceutical exposures is rapid and methods to assess the risk of substances to human health are rapidly advancing. For the 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in Cellular & Molecular Mechanisms of Toxicity (CMMT), we are focusing on ?Mechanistic Toxicology: Advanced Investigation in Mechanistic Toxicology? with the goal of incorporating research on the mechanistic basis of disease into risk decision and policymaking. The 2017 Conference will feature a wide range of topics including the contribution of the microbiome to toxicological outcomes, the roles of the noncoding RNAs in toxic responses, novel functions of the xenobiotic receptors, genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of toxicology, new technologies such as the application of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology in toxicology research, systems biology approaches in toxicology, and novel uses of non- traditional in vivo models for safety and risk assessment. The conference will bring together an interdisciplinary group of investigators who are at the forefront of their field, and will provide opportunities for junior scientists and graduate and undergraduate students to present their work in poster and platform format and exchange ideas with leaders in the field. The collegial atmosphere of this Conference, with programmed discussion sessions as well as opportunities for informal gatherings in the afternoons and evenings, provides an avenue for scientists from different disciplines to network and promotes collaborations in the various research areas. For the third consecutive time, a Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) will be held in conjunction with this conference. The 2017 GRS meeting will highlight recent advancements in the field of microbiome analysis, aimed towards safety assessment and understanding mechanisms of toxicity. This is a unique forum for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education to network and present and exchange new data and cutting edge ideas. The 2017 GRC will add a new feature on Monday afternoon: ?Power Hour: Committed to inclusion and the professional development of women in science?, addressing the challenges that women face in science and providing a forum for discussion and mentoring.